As a sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China Netcom has had to relinquish rights to providing WiMax to China Mobile (CHL), and has therefore lost a chance to extend into the wireless sector.

According to local media, China Mobile has been authorized by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad to construct a WiMAX network in Beijing.

Zhao Jidong, senior vice president of China Netcom, says that though China Netcom and China Mobile are both partners of the Olympic Games, the two handle different technology tasks for the event. According to Zhao, China Netcom will serve the Olympic Games by only providing a 800M digital cluster and China Mobile will provide the WiMAX and Wi-Fi services.